Sunday, 13 September 2015

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Rather longer than the previous novels
(at nearly 750 pages in my edition), The Girl Who Kicked the
Hornet's Nest finishes off
Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. I don't want to give spoilers for
The Girl Who Played with Fire,
but I will say that we begin this novel with Salander stuck in a
hospital bed and awaiting trial for murder.

Of
necessity the majority of the action is done by the other characters
in this novel, although Salander proves exceptionally resourceful
even from a secure hospital room. Blomkvist races to uncover the
truth about Salander and her father, while an underground Swedish
secret services cell desperately tries to get her committed once
again in order to cover up her father's past crimes.

Once
again Larsson's style is clear, direct and gripping. Action and
subterfuge merge as we follow the manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres
of the opposing sides, and the emotional and moral ambiguities add a
refreshing sense of realism. There is no theatricality about the
“bad guys'” point of view sections, only a feeling of people with
a different sense of loyalty and priorities. Again the only negative
I have, especially having read the trilogy spaced out over several
years, is that I found the extensive network of minor characters and their
relationships and pasts difficult to recall at times.

The
frantic action leads up to the culmination of the trilogy, Salander's
trial to try to prove her sanity and innocence once and for all. All the
strands carefully woven through the series are pulled together to
form a very satisfying legal and personal conflict between Salander
and her nemesis Teleborian, who was responsible for her original committal in
a psychiatric unit as a child.

This
was a gripping, addictive novel – I can't tell you the amount of
times I meant to stop reading and just had to read one more chapter.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
is a fast-paced story full of big personalities and complex
intertwined schemes, coming together to form a tense and dramatic climax.